Goodreads asked Rae Miles:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Rae Miles Successor stemmed from a short story I'd written in college for one of my creative writing courses. We were learning about magical realism and were tasked to come up with a story of our own. One of my first thoughts was this:

What if a Magic 8-Ball gave real answers?

From there, it turned into a cautionary tale of what happens when you ask questions you shouldn't know the answers to, and get them. I knew I wanted to turn it into a novel, but the original plot I'd chosen was very intimidating. I wasn't entirely comfortable with some of the subject matter I knew I'd have to address in the story at some point, so I decided to approach the idea from a different route. I happened to be driving home one night after visiting family when the idea for Successor struck me out of nowhere. I was so excited to get home so I could write down everything before it faded away.

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